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سيف الله
03-26-2017, 10:49 PM
Salaam

This is depressing. Note how the Saudis globalists friends are turning on them.

The Middle East’s largest building project has effaced 1,400 years of Islamic history

AS THE governor of Mecca, Prince Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud has been able to compensate for earlier failings. He came to his role in 2007 from Asir province, where his plans to erect modern tower blocks in the city of Abha were largely unfulfilled. He successfully erased Abha’s quaint old town, with its beehive houses made of wattle, only to replace them with squat breeze-block bungalows. Not a high-rise was to be seen.

Now, on top of what was Mecca’s old city of lattice balconies and riwaq arches, the prince has overseen the Middle East’s largest development project. Skyscrapers soar above Islam’s holiest place, dwarfing the granite Kaaba far below. Diggers flatten hills that were once dotted with the homes of the Prophet’s wives, companions and first caliphs. Motorways radiate out from the vast new shrine. Local magnates are as keen to build as the government. Jabal Omar Development, a consortium of old Meccan families, is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to erect two 50-floor towers on the site of the third caliph’s house. Such is the pace that for a time the holy city’s logo was a bulldozer.

Demolition, say officials, is the inevitable price of expansion. In 1950, before it all began, 50,000 pilgrims perambulated round the Kaaba, the heart of the haj ritual. Last year, 7.5m did so. Within three years, the authorities are planning to double that huge number. “There’s no other solution,” says Anas Serafi, an architect and member of the board of Jabal Omar Development. “How else could we absorb millions of pilgrims?” Casualties are a regrettable by-product: in September 2015, the world’s largest mobile crane toppled on the Grand Mosque, killing 107 pilgrims. But two weeks later more than 2,000 pilgrims were killed in a stampede, highlighting the dangers of a lack of space.

As Mecca’s custodian, King Salman bin Abdel Aziz sees both his prestige and his pocket benefit from the increasing traffic. Under the government’s transformation plan, revenue from pilgrimages will grow to compete with those from oil. Billions are being spent on railways, parking for 18,000 buses to transport pilgrims and hotels for them to stay in, heavy with gilded chandeliers. The McDonald’s golden arches gleam outside the gates of the Grand Mosque.

So thorough is the erasure that some suspect the Saudi royals are determined to finish a task begun in the 18th century, when from Arabia’s unruly hinterland the Al Saud and allied Bedouin tribes rose up against the Ottomans. Declaring a jihad, they pitted their puritanical strain of Islam, eponymously known as Wahhabism, first against the Empire’s multi-religious rule and then, after its collapse in the first world war, against the peninsula’s other Islamic rites. As part of the campaign of territorial and spiritual unification, called tawhid, they conquered Mecca in 1924.

Critics call this Islamic Maoism. Out went the city’s heterogeneous mix of Maliki, Shafii and Zaydi rites; in came homogenisation under the Wahhabi creed. Alongside the black and white dress they forced on women and men respectively, the new tribal rulers reshaped the urban environment, stripping away the past. They replaced the four pulpits at the foot of the Kaaba, one for each of Sunni Islam’s schools, with a single one, exclusively for Wahhabi preachers. They cleansed the faith of saint-worship, demolishing shrines venerated by Shia and traditional Sunnis alike. Of the city’s scores of holy sites, only the Kaaba survives.

Now that so much is gone, some Meccans are having second thoughts. “We’ve turned our past dating back to Abrahamic times into a petrol station,” grumbles a local. Mr Serafi, the developer, is designing a virtual heritage trail. Maps trace routes through the non-existent old town, highlighting the homes of the first caliphs. His brother has used the profits to create Jeddah’s finest art gallery nearby.

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21717992-middle-easts-largest-building-project-has-effaced-1400-years-islamic
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Scimitar
03-27-2017, 05:45 PM
I empathize with the OP, I really do

however, I have had years to think about this topic and in the past, I used to be quite vocal about this "destruction" you cite above.

But in all honestly, when we consider the plethora of ahadeeth describing Makkah and Medina in the latter times, I ask, can we really expect the preservation of buildings? And places of antiquity which held not religious significance in terms of pilgrimage but only places of historical interest? Even the sacred masajid saw expansions... and this was for the facilitation of pilgrims which is a beneficial thing. How can we expect to ignore the masajid of Makkah and Medina undergoing expansions whilst destroying the old stones and bricks use to make them when attempting to claim "destruction of makkah" or "medina"??? it makes no sense to me.



And as far as I can see, whatever is happening currently in terms of expansion, and the recent developments such as the clock tower - were all prophesied to pass so... do we complain? or do we use our energies in a better way instead?

Scimi
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beleiver
03-27-2017, 10:50 PM
What with Trump in power and the rise of fascism in Europe i would of thought the relationship with the zionist global banking cabal and the house of Saud was never stronger..Extreme right wing conservatives tend to stick together and love tall buildings and real estate.

A senior adviser to the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave the following statement on the meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump:
The meeting between Prince Mohammad bin Salman and President Trump was a huge success, marking a historic turning point in bilateral relation of the two countries.
Relations had undergone a period of difference of opinion. However, today’s meeting has put things on the right track, and marked a significant shift in relations, across all political, military, security and economic fields. All of this is due to President Trump’s great understanding of the importance of relations between the two countries and his clear sight of problems in the region.

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azc
03-28-2017, 07:40 AM
They have power. They can do anything
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سيف الله
02-09-2018, 09:31 PM
Salaam

Another update.

Like to share.


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AabiruSabeel
02-09-2018, 10:12 PM
:salam:


Foreign media always tries to portray Saudi Arabia in negative light. It is one their tactics to sow discord among Muslims by turning them against KSA. Most of the things mentioned in the posts and videos above are lies and unsubstantiated claims. For example, one of the videos says that an ancient house belonging to prophet Muhammad :saws: was recently razed to build toilets! These are the things that are said simply to provoke Muslims. Who on earth can do such a thing? And what proof do you have that that ancient house belonged to the Prophet :saws:?


format_quote Originally Posted by Junon
... on the site of the third caliph’s house
Another unsubstantiated claim.


format_quote Originally Posted by Junon
They cleansed the faith of saint-worship, demolishing shrines venerated by Shia
As if that was a bad thing to do!


This forum has details of several projects undertaken to develop Makkah and Madinah: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3862

There's another thread dedicated to Makkah and Pilgrimage: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...37079&page=561
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